1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to methods and systems for searching computer applications. More specifically, the invention relates to methods and systems for searching computer applications having varying data types.
2. Background Art
Many computer applications are provided with searching functions that may be used to search through the applications or data bases associated with the applications for specific words, phrases or data values. Generally, these search procedures are straightforward. A user identifies a field to be searched and then identifies a value, such as a word, phrase or numeric value, to be searched for in the identified field. The search function then searches the designated field for the designated word, phrase or numeric value.
Search procedures can be much more complicated if the application or data base being searched has words in more than one language or numeric values in more than one format. For example, a simple search for Mar. 7, 2002, using a standard American format of 3/7/02, would not identify any occurrences of 7/3/02, which is a standard European way to record Mar. 7, 2002. Similarly, a search for the number “192,383.33” may not identify the number “192.383,33,” which is a standard European format for the same value.
A specific case in point involves the WOI application, which is an Internet accessible tool developed and hosted by International Business Machines, Corp. (IBM). The WOI application allows suppliers of the IBM corporation and its subsidiaries to process purchase orders, purchase order changes, invoice, invoice rejects and remittance advice documents. These documents contain four types of data that a supplier would want to search on. The types of data are: Character Strings, NLS (National Language Strings) Character Strings, Dates and Amounts. Auditing the search for value entered by the user of the application for each data type is complicated because of the multi-language requirement of the WOI application.
This multi-language requirement affects not only strings of characters but also affects date formats (MM/D/CCYY vs. DD-MM-CCYY, etc.) and amount formats (192,383.33 vs. 192.383,33). The NLS character string problem has to do with coded values that are fields in the documents. A supplier may not know some of these values and thus may not be able to search for certain types, classes or sub-classes of documents. In addition, if a person were working in Spanish on the WOI application, various portions of the application would appear in their Spanish translation.